Actions

Work Header

Rating:
Archive Warning:
Category:
Fandom:
Relationship:
Characters:
Additional Tags:
Language:
English
Stats:
Published:
2026-04-06
Words:
974
Chapters:
1/1
Comments:
3
Kudos:
80
Bookmarks:
7
Hits:
402

The first and last time Din tried to sing

Summary:

Din tries something new to get the kid to sleep. Grogu can't figure out why Mando Dad is making that sound.

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Work Text:

Grogu was not tired. 

Mando Dad seemed to think differently, as he had put Grogu back in his hammock twice now. He doesn't know why he even bothers to close the door to the little bed area, Grogu has long since figured out how to work the controls to open it from the inside. He thinks it might just make Mando Dad feel better... 

Whatever the case is, he's found his way back into the cockpit again. Faster than the other two times too, he's getting good at climbing that ladder. 

He makes it all the way to the foot of his own chair before the man notices him again. 

"Come on kid..." he says again, this time more exhausted sounding than the last two. 

Grogu moves closer to him. Climbing into his chair is difficult, it'd be much easier if Mando Dad just picked him up and let him sit in his lap. 

He gets to his foot and waits, and Mando Dad does not pick him up. Instead, he just stares at him for a bit. 

Eventually, he sighs, finally giving up on that awful sleep mandate, it seems. Good. Grogu wondered how long it would take for him to realize it was a waste of time. 

He turns in his chair and flicks some buttons and switches on the dashboard, and then he's bending down to pick him up. Yes! Mando Dad really is the best.

Mando Dad picks him up, stands, then starts climbing back down the ladder? What? No! Come on. He's not tired. 

"We're gonna be in hyperspace for a while." He explains, again, "You should get some sleep, there's lots to do when we land." 

What they're actually doing when they land, he doesn't say. Grogu has noticed him getting a lot more talkative as time goes on, but he's still a man of few words. Grogu thinks he just doesn't ever know which ones to use. That's alright though, he can usually fill in the gaps… If the man bothers to tell him where they're even going, which he hasn't this time. 

Mando Dad shuffles himself into the little bed area with him. Oh? This is new. 

"I guess I should get some too, huh kid?" 

Which, is not what he wanted, but hanging out with Mando Dad is much better than his other attempts at putting him to sleep, so he's alright to let him try for now. 

Mando Dad has taken to sitting at the back end of the bunk with his back to the wall. How he plans on sleeping like that he really isn't sure. He knows that the man has a habit of sleeping upright in his pilot chair, but Grogu can't imagine him wanting to sleep sitting up like that. He squirms in the man's hold, he's gotta push him to lay down properly. How does he expect Grogu to sleep if he can't even figure out how to do it right himself? 

"Ah, kid—" he readjusts him in his arms and does not let him help him figure out how you're supposed to sleep. Mando Dad is always running around and fighting people, if Grogu needs sleep, he needs it more. 

He clinks his nails against his armor, come on. Lay down like a normal person. 

The man readjusts him again, and Grogu stops to give him a look. Mando Dad gives people looks all the time and it always works for him. Somehow you can always tell when he was glaring at you inside the helmet. At least, the people he's staring down usually do, and Grogu, when he's about to do something he knows he shouldn't. 

Grogu's look does not have the same effect, apparently, because all he does is stare back at him for a moment, and then sigh again. 

"Alright kid, how about this..." he says uncertainly. Uncertainty is a common thing he gets from the man, and Grogu thinks he's one of the only people who gets to see him like that. He usually acts so intimidating outside of the ship

Maybe that's not a good thing, because after another second he hesitantly starts... making this noise.

It sounds… awful. And very unfamiliar. He's been with the man for a while now, but nothing he's ever done has sounded this… horrible. 

It sounds like he's cringing under the helmet at his own actions. Him being under the helmet doesn't help, his modulated voice doing him no favors. What is he trying to do? 

Mando Dad, apparently not done with whatever it is he's doing, starts gently swaying him side to side, which is only more confusing. 

Is... is Mando Dad trying to sing to him? 

Wow, he is isn't he? He's really bad, like, alarmingly bad, like to the point he's kind of worried about him if this is the best he can do. Is something wrong with him? Everyone else who has been a caretaker to him had sounded much better. He's not even sure if those are words or not, or if they are, if that's even a language he knows.

Grogu wonders if he should start crying. If something is wrong with the man, which it's seeming like there is, then he should start crying, right? Okay, he's going to start crying now.

"Whoa, whoa, okay. Easy now." He says, finally stopping, "That bad, huh?" He asks—rhetorically, Grogu can only hope—as he starts to bounce him in an attempt to calm him down. 

"I was never good at that." He still sounds like he's cringing a little. If he always sounds like that, maybe the issue is longstanding. 

Grogu stares at him, he stares back, and apparently gives up completely, because it isn't long before he's sighing again.

"You want a snack, kid?" 

Grogu coos, yes, that's much better.

Notes:

Special thank you to my friend Lien who told me to write this as a joke and also came up with the phrase "Grogu wonders if he should cry." Killed me so hard I couldn't not actually do it